Take the Red Wings' 4-1 Game 2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks Saturday.

They will still give the Blackhawks the President's Trophy for the most points of any NHL team during the regular season, yet it might have been rendered moot with one stunningly terrific road performance by the Red Wings in a Western Conference semifinal Stanley Cup playoff series.

The Red Wings took home ice advantage with the win. If the series goes the maximum seven games, three will be at Joe Louis Arena, which is presenting an increasingly electric environment.

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However, merely laying out what this victory means on paper doesn't do it justice.

Chicago badly outplayed the Red Wings in Game 1. The Red Wings looked overmatched, flat and spent after an emotional seven-game series victory over Anaheim in the opening round.

They made mistake-after-mistake in a 4-1 loss Wednesday, which should have been much worse.

Saturday, this was a completely different team. They fell behind 1-0, but then out-skated, out-shot, out-skilled and out-willed the Blackhawks.

A lot of people are going to look at this game and comment about how it was a comeback effort for young defenseman Brendan Smith, who was roundly criticized following the series opener. It was a good effort by Smith, a unique talent, who is still finding his way in the rugged world of the NHL. He had a goal.

They will be missing the point about how the Red Wings really won this game, though, and perhaps the biggest factor as to why they have become a good and unexpected tale this postseason.

Anybody ever talk about Jonathan Ericsson? If there is anybody on the Red Wings' squad who should understand what Smith has been through, it is Ericsson.

He was hammered regularly by fans for being a turnover machine early in his stint with the Red Wings. When general manager Ken Holland re-signed Ericsson to a three-year contract, paying him more than $3 million per season, in the summer of 2011, he was roundly criticized.

It turned out to be a bargain. Ericsson quietly had a brilliant game Saturday. He played a Nicklas Lidstrom-like 25 minutes, his plus-minus ratio was plus 2 and he had an assist. Ericsson is eligible for free agency after next season. Signing him for the long term should become a priority for the Red Wings. He'll command a lot on the free agent market - if he gets there.

Niklas Kronwall gets similarly lost in the shuffle. He was also plus 2 Saturday and turned in iron-man minutes.

The Red Wings have made a remarkably smooth transition after Lidstrom's retirement mostly because of the performance of the above-mentioned veteran defensemen. They had to play better than ever for the Red Wings to get this far.

It's accurate to say Holland has done a respectable job of re-tooling the Red Wings into Stanley Cup championship contenders. Sure, it remains improbable the Red Wings will win the Stanley Cup title this season. The smart money probably remains on the Blackhawks in this series.

However, when a team is one of eight remaining in the playoffs, is even at a game apiece and has taken home ice advantage in the second round, it is the definition of a Stanley Cup championship contender.

It was thought the Red Wings might be living on the greatness of Pavel Datsyuk, the leadership and grit of Henrik Zetterberg and the hot goaltending of Jimmy Howard, but they are proving to be deeper than that.

The Red Wings, 5-4 in the playoffs against the first- and third-best teams in the regular season, are in good shape in this series.

If Saturday is an indication, this playoff run might be longer than any of us could have possibility anticipated when it started.